Data-driven policy development of Municipalities Preparation steps for Integrating AI tools in the policymaking process

Abstract. This paper draws from the experience of the 3-year, Horizon 2020 project, AI4PublicPolicy, and examines the essential actions public municipalities should take to adequately prepare for the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their policy making processes under the scope of the five pilot cities involved in the project. The study explores a range of issues including organisational, technological, and ethical aspects. It also underlines the importance to understand local environments, involve stakeholders, evaluate the relevance and the availability of the data, assess the technological readiness, improve internal capacities and assure legal and ethical compliance. In order to promote transparency and cultivate public trust, the document also emphasizes the significance of elaborating on user-centric, agile and stable AI-based tools and solutions, such as dashboards of Explainable AI (XAI) services. Municipalities may pave their way towards automated, transparent and citizen-centric development of public policies by handling the challenges of AI deployment with the help of the current framework.